The Wine of the Gods
by nowyouseemenowyoudont
Summary: My response to Saholia's Blood Challenge. Kagome's attire brings her more problems than she really wanted...


Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

* * *

It was becoming mortifying. Kagome had always been a little clumsy, nothing too extravagant, just the occasional uncooperative limb and misjudged step had sometimes resulted on her falling on her bottom. But, now that she was journeying through the feudal era, her clumsy habits had worsened. Due to the lack of smooth surfaces that weren't riddled with protruding roots, now that there were no 'Warning Slippery Surface' signs on rock faces, now that she was constantly having to flee for her life without really looking at the floor.

All that said and done, her clumsiness hadn't been all that bad until recently. The group had been fighting a huge disgustingly pungent demon, not even Sango was sure as to what type of demon it was. All they knew was that it was ugly.

It was during this fight, when Inuyasha had used Kaze no Kizu that the jewel shard craving demon exploded. They were very used to demons exploding on them, but what they hadn't realised was that the demons innards were somewhat acidic.

Their clothes soon began to burn and the entire troupe had panicked; shedding their clothes quickly as possible and, in the case of everyone who wasn't Miroku, trying to hide their modesty.

All of their clothes had fallen victim to the burning goo, which wasn't too much of a problem considering they had plenty of replacements. Inuyasha hadn't been too happy when the rest of the ramen had been melted into violently hissing plastic mush. But life went on.

No, the problem had been the distinct lack of shoes that Kagome was left with. Her poor worn, much loved school shoes had died an acidic death. She mourned them for four days as she had to make do with hitching a lift off of Inuyasha and Kirara before they got to a village where she was able to purchase shoes.

But that was where she had drawn the short straw, the shoes that she had purchased were geta and not very walking friendly. They basically had the effect of turning Kagome into a walking disaster.

She fell over so many times that day that her bottom had ached in the morning.

But that wasn't the worst of it. The next day they had hiked for miles through the lesser travelled path through the forest, were roots played vindictive games with her ankles and because in her paranoia she was desperately watching the floor her hair kept getting tangled in low hanging branches, early scalping her.

"Ah!" she shrieked as her hair got tangled in a branch and she tripped over a root simultaneously. Resulting in one Miko sat on her ass on the forest floor, her ankle at a strange angle, hair ripped out and stuck to the branch above her. As she had landed she had inadvertently managed to lunge her hand into some kind of prickly bush and was now bleeding from her wrist.

"Keh," Inuyasha snorted as he looked at the fallen Miko. "Can't even walk properly, how's she supposed to find jewel shards?"

Kagome's eyebrow twitched, did he think she couldn't hear him or something? "Osuwari," she grumbled as Sango lent a hand to pull the teenager to her feet.

"Are you okay Kagome-chan?" Sango asked sympathetically

"I'm fine," Kagome sighed, "but they couldn't have had shoes like yours could they?"

Sango smiled ruefully and Shippo patted her on the head consolingly.

"I think your hand is bleeding Kagome-sama," Miroku pointed out.

She pulled her serrated wrist from the scratchy plant and glanced down at her bleeding, shredded, wrist. "It stings, but it's my bottom that hurts the most."

"Well, Kagome-sama, if I may he so bold as to offer my help," Miroku ventured, his reliable Hentai grin fixed firmly in place.

"You may not," Sango said curtly and Miroku abruptly found himself eating dirt in much a similar fashion to their Hanyou friend.

"Nearly as handy as the beads," Shippo remarked to Kirara who mewed her agreement.

Kagome pulled a handkerchief from the pocket in her skirt and tried to stem the flow of the crimson liquid as much as possible. Hissing as the cut began to sting, she tensed as a colossal aura pressed upon her senses.

Inuyasha sprung from his hole, growling and clutching at the hilt of Tessaiga ."Sesshoumaru!"

"That aura is going to give me a permanent migraine one of these days," Kagome muttered as she rubbed her temples with her uninjured hand.

Sesshoumaru breezed into the clearing, looking calm as ever. If one wasn't paying close attention of course.

Kagome, who made a point of tracking the dangerous Taiyokai's emotions and behaviour closely to avoid death, looked up at him and blinked in surprise. His shoulders were tense like he was restraining himself from something, there was a leaf in his always impeccable hair, his left eyebrow was twitching spasmodically and his eyes were a slightly darker shade than normal.

Something was very wrong.

"What the hell do you want, fucker?" Inuyasha growled, seemingly thrown off balance when Sesshoumaru bid him no answer or even gave any indication that he had heard his half brother speak.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," Kagome called; manners could get you far when in this particular Yokai's presence. "Is something the matter?"

His dark eyes swivelled in her direction and she regretted her words instantly. His eyes were borderline feral and, now that they were trained on her; she fought the urge to run. He sniffed the air for a moment before disappearing instantly, only to appear half a second later exactly in front of the bleeding Miko.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" she questioned, her heart jack hammering inside her rib cage from surprise at his sudden proximity to her.

He slowly circled the young Miko, paying no heed to the Hanyou still shouting curses and being restrained by a cautious Houshi. His eyes were devouring her form. She felt as if she wore no clothes the way his eyes seemed to gaze into her. She shivered slightly at the feeling of complete exposure. His eyes trickled over her face, carefully mapped the contours of her long lean legs and her delicate feet encased in the geta, slid over her waspish waist, absorbed the fragile column of her throat and the gentle swell of her breasts beneath the cloth and finally came to caress her torn and bloody wrist.

She was finding looking at the demon lord too much of a task; she was worried she might faint if his eyes actually met hers, so she followed the direction of his gaze to her hand. It was still bleeding sluggishly as the blood attempted to clot.

"Um... I fell over," she explained sheepishly.

She felt his eyes fix on her face but dared not look up at him; she didn't want to find out what those eyes could do to her.

"Be more careful, Miko," his words were slightly more gravelly than normal and Kagome swiftly looked up at him. But he had already vanished and he hadn't even beaten Inuyasha into a pulp. Pity.

"That was the most surreal experience of my life," Miroku commented, "and I've hallucinated a number of times."

Sango, still wide eyed, simply nodded.

* * *

That had been the first bizarre encounter with Sesshoumaru but not the last. Since then, whenever Kagome's blood would spill, he would be there with the tracking precision of a beast. Her own personal blood hound.

Each time she would stutter out some excuse for why she was bleeding. He would circle her and inspect the damage like she was a piece of meat and then he would vanish. But not before dealing his favourite parting line: 'Be more careful, Miko'.

She blamed the goddamn geta. They were more trouble than they were worth. And even with trying extra hard to stay upright she found herself landing awkwardly far too often.

Inuyasha was becoming increasingly sullen and angry. He lashed out at the slightest thing and went to new heights, when Sesshoumaru would appear, to try and bait the Taiyokai into a fight. He became increasingly angry at Kagome and the hostility between the two was coming to the boil.

"What Inuyasha?" Kagome demanded as he glared at her for at least the twentieth time that day. They were all sat around the campfire basking in the early evening sunshine and generally _trying_ to relax.

"Keh."

"That's not a reply," she quipped tersely.

"Fine," Inuyasha huffed, putting himself in her space imposingly, "What the hell is going on between you and my asshole of a half brother?" he demanded.

"Huh?" she asked, her eyebrow twitched and the other unfortunate members of the camp winced and wondered whether taking shelter or pulling out snacks was appropriate.

"Don't play innocent wench, you know what I'm talking about."

"Yes, I do," she commented, "but you have seen everything I have seen, you have glimpsed as much of his behaviour as I have, what in the world makes you think that I understand this any better than you do?"

"You know what's going on wench," he growled, obstinately clinging to his belief.

"I don't," she stamped her foot and inwardly groaned at the childish action, "I think you're just jealous that your _Aniki_ is paying more attention to me than he is to you!" she jabbed him in the chest in a matter of fact way.

He growled. "Yeah right, like I care what that prick thinks."

She threw her hands into the air. "I give up," she sighed, "Osuwari." she allowed herself an eye roll as her Hanyou friend once again became intimate with the dirt.

"I'm going to the hot spring," she told Sango, studiously ignoring the mumbled curses from the Hanyou shaped crater. "Please sit on the Houshi."

"No problem," Sango smiled as Kagome stalked off in the direction of the hot springs

"My dear Sango, I suggest that you do as Kagome-sama asked and 'sit' on me," Miroku's eyebrows were wiggling in a manner that made Sango uncomfortable. So she sent him off for a nice nap.

Triumphantly, upon arrival at the hot spring, Kagome kicked off the wretched geta with as about as much finesse as a drunken can-can-dancer. Grunting when they splashed into the merrily steaming water she decided to worry about the death traps later. Quickly divesting herself of her clothes she prodded the surface of the water with a toe. It was hot, hopefully enough to sooth her poor bruised and abused muscles.

Stepping onto the ledge surrounding the spring she flinched as an unnamed shadow bird flew from the trees behind her. Goosebumps raised on her skin and she hastily dropped into the water.

"Kya!" she shrieked, for a second the water seemed scalding before she adjusted and sighed in relaxed contentment. She closed her eyes and, resolving to simply soak for a little while, she leant back against one of the walls of the spring.

She inhaled sharply as an unseen rock scraped against the flesh on the outside of her thigh. She searched for a new perch and finally found a smooth enough wall to recline against.

She was halfway through a daydream in which she had graduated school at the top of her class when her Miko senses started to tingle.

"Ah crap."

She dunked herself under the surface and waited for the inevitable. Waited for him.

Sesshoumaru burst into the clearing that housed the hot spring currently occupied by Kagome in a cloud of youki wind. He caught a brief glimpse of Kagome peering at him with overly large innocent eyes over the surface of the water before she started to choke.

And why was she choking? Because she was laughing. And why was she laughing? Because Sesshoumaru was absolutely soaked.

Head to toe of his pristine white clothes had been drenched and were turning weirdly transparent. His hair was sodden and dripping in a steady stream onto the forest floor. His eyes were as feral as ever, but his drowned appearance ruined the terrifying effect somewhat.

Recovering her wits Kagome blinked at him. "What in the world happened to you?" she asked, "I can safely assume you weren't ambushed by water-bomb wielding children."

Ignoring her last comment he answered gruffly. "This one was on my island."

"Of course," she said, mildly taken aback, "and you swam here?"

"This one ran, across the water."

She decided to change tactics before she collapsed from laughter again. "You have an island?"

"Yes."

"What were you doing on the island?"

"Trying to stay away from you."

"Why?"

"You are bleeding constantly Miko." He glowered at her like it was her fault. He was desperately trying not to give into temptation with this woman, but that was becoming near impossible.

"Tell me about it!"

"I just did," he was dry and unconcerned by her attempt at satire.

"So, what does my bleeding have to do with you?"

"You are a Miko. Pure and untouched." That made her blush slightly and she wondered why she always had to be so damn curious. Coupled with that came the musings of why Sesshoumaru was suddenly so chatty. "I am a predator, one of the last great predators in the land, blood that is both powerful and pure calls out to me, calls out to be feasted upon. This Sesshoumaru eats only the finest cuisine." He flashed his razor sharp teeth at her.

"You mean like a vampire?" she blurted out.

He growled and she flinched. "This one is nothing like those fools. They never learnt to control their bloodlust and their hunger could never be sated." He paused to glare at her while she became fascinated with her clasped fingers. "This one had not feasted since the last of the great Miko's, nearly a hundred years ago."

"So all you eat is Miko?" she asked tremulously.

"Correct."

"Why?"

"It is the most efficient food source, only a little Miko blood is needed to survive for twenty years," he commented.

"Are you going to kill me?" she was amazed at how calm she sounded, but disregarded the fact and focused on Sesshoumaru.

"Why would this one do that?"he asked advancing on her slowly and dropping into the spring beside her. He didn't bother to stop the predatory grin that spread across his features when she backed away. "If I kill you I lose a food source."

"So what are you doing?" he voice was getting more panicked as he crowded her and forced her to back up into a corner.

"This one will feed, but you shall not die," he paused as his eyes briefly flashed scarlet.

"You're going to bite me?" she asked timidly.

"Yes."

"On my neck?"

"That is more than a little obvious Miko." He raised an eyebrow at her and she huffed, folding her arms. "This one does not wish for another annoying encounter with the half-breed should he discover what I am doing."

"So, where are you going to do it?" she asked.

"There are other places where you blood pulses Miko."He smirked in a decidedly worrying way. Before she could blink, he had lifted her to sit on one side of the spring. She squealed as she remembered her nakedness but he paid her no mind as he exposed her inner thigh.

"This will sting at first, but you will enjoy it," he promised.

And then his deadly canines clamped down around the soft skin of her upper thigh. She tensed as she felt his fangs puncture her flesh. Briefly she realised he was attacking the femoral artery, not that he realised that, and then all sensible thought abandoned her.

She was left, melty-headed, on a rock in the middle of a forest with a Taiyokai between her thighs. And stranger still, the Taiyokai was Sesshoumaru. Which of course brought the whole situation to a whole new level of weird. She was beginning to wonder if she hadn't tripped, fallen on her head and begun to hallucinate.

Belatedly, she recognised her new found jelly-limbed-ness as pleasure and her poor befuddled mind struggled to understand why. Some far deep realms of her psyche offered up the suggestion that maybe his saliva was an aphrodisiac. But that thought was quickly lost to the onslaught of the completely all consuming sensations she was being overwhelmed with.

Sesshoumaru was experiencing bliss also. He could remember his last Miko; she had not been as willing as this one and had tried to make him to stop. He had been forced to kill her and then drink her blood. The blood had been less tempting then, cold and lifeless, not to mention powerless. But this taste was truly 'the wine of the gods'. That's what Miko's had been known as in Taiyokai and Daiyokai circles back when more of the demons had been around.

Her blood was something he could quickly become addicted to; it tasted even better than it had smelled and he hadn't even thought that possible. It was a woodsy taste, as if she was nature personified. Like saffron infused with warm summers. Add to that the incomparable taste of her Taiyokai-induced-arousal and the sensation of the taste tingling on his taste buds was nearly enough to turn him feral. He had noticed her fingers entwining with his hair but didn't really care enough to do anything about it. He could feel her stiffening and decided it was nearly time to stop; if he took anymore she would faint from blood loss.

He pulled away just in time to hear her cry of rapture and allowed his tongue to snake out and lick his lips clean of her wonderful blood. Her eyes were unfocused and he decided that he wouldn't repress the urge to tease her again.

Kagome for her part was wondering how many people had ever had immaculate orgasms. Then she began to muse over whether it was really immaculate seeing as he had been latched onto her thigh. She knew the embarrassment would come but post-orgasmic-bliss was helping to dull that.

"I will be back soon, Miko." He turned to leave and, as he approached the edge of the clearing, he turned back to look at her still spread-eagled form, boneless across the rock he had left her on. "Kagome," he called, waiting until her unfocused gaze drifted over to him, "be more careful, Miko."

Kagome's eyebrow twitched as she heard the distinct sound of Sesshoumaru's laughter as he floated away. She glared at the sky and promised retribution.

* * *

A/N: So anyway this was for Saholia's Blood challenge thingy! It was supposed to be kinda funny but I'm not sure if it only appealed to my warped sense of humour. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
